The Rise of a Family: Starting from Daily Intelligence - Chapter 406 (Patreon)

Chapter 406: Intelligence, The Commandery Prince Drops Dead, Thunder Tribulation

After entering the core of the Falling Phoenix Mountain Range, Fu Changsheng immediately urged the Azure Flood Dragon to put distance between himself and the Purple Mansion cultivators of the other clans. At the same time, his mind dropped onto the sea-of-consciousness panel.

“Redeem intelligence.”

Buzz!

The panel trembled.

A flood of yellow light surged.

Lines of text surfaced one after another:

[In a water abyss a hundred li from you lies a brood of one female and nine males—ten adult third-rank Bloodscale Crocodiles. They mated years ago. Under the guard of the males, the female has already laid a clutch of Bloodscale Crocodile eggs in the old nest.]

“Stop redeeming!”

Bloodscale Crocodiles?

The name was a little unfamiliar to him.

He slapped his storage pouch.

A flash of rosy light.

A thick Bestiary of Demon Beasts hovered in midair.

It had been compiled under the lead of his fourth younger sister, Fu Changli, who for nearly a century had directed the disciples of the clan’s Ten Thousand Beasts Valley, updating and refining it in real time.

He sent a hand seal into the tome.

After quickly entering the characters for “Bloodscale Crocodile,”

the bestiary gave a gentle shiver, and a picture flew out of it:

[Bloodscale Crocodile: upper-grade Yellow-rank bloodline; once grown, can cultivate to third rank.]

[Habits: favors Ghost-Mushroom Grass; adept at ambush.]

[Weaknesses: force it out of the water and the power of its bloodline Technique, Blood-Shadow Escape, drops sharply; its carapace is tough, but the eye sockets and throat are fatal weak points.]

“Blood-Shadow Escape?”

If so,

he would have to lure the brood out of the water.

Fu Changsheng beckoned the bestiary back into his pouch, identified his direction, and immediately urged the Azure Flood Dragon southwest at full speed.

The entire hunt lasted only one month.

Time was tight.

Besides,

the Huang, Wu, and Cao clans all had False Core cultivators in the field. If he didn’t kill more beasts, he might not even snag a single Purple Mansion quota for the Kunlun Minor World.

The Azure Flood Dragon was exceedingly fast.

In less than half a cup of tea, he reached the water abyss.

The abyss was a hundred zhang across, ringed by towering cliffs shaggy with moss and hanging vines. Here and there, strange spirit herbs poked from stone seams, shedding a faint glow. The pool was a deep, inky green, like a colossal mirror reflecting the heavy clouds above and the knife-edged silhouettes of the cliffs. Dead leaves drifted on the surface, swaying to a faint breeze—the quiet was almost eerie.

The depths could not be seen.

High above, several black waterbirds circled, crying in harsh voices.

Fu Changsheng stood at the brink.

A sweep of spiritual sense.

No trace of the Bloodscale Crocodiles.

His eyes narrowed. “Hiding quite deep, aren’t you.”

At once, his mind moved.

The three Thunderstriking Swords within him roared out and plunged into the pool like falling stars.

The instant the swords entered the water—

Boom!

The surface exploded with ten thousand arcs of lightning.

In a blink, they wove into a Starry Heavenly Thunder Sword Array spanning a hundred zhang.

The array took the Seven-Slaughter Dipper as its pivot; every thread of lightning hid sword intent, turning the whole pool into an electrified cage.

“Roar!”

At the same time,

angry bellows rumbled from the bottom.

Lightning flashed.

One Bloodscale Crocodile after another surged up from the depths.

Each was three zhang long, its whole body covered in scales as scarlet as blood and gleaming like metal, hard as iron. Their heads were broad, fangs dagger-sharp, eyes crimson with ferocity. A line of spines bristled along their backs; their heavy tails could shatter stone with a single sweep.

There were ten in all.

Nine males at third-rank mid-stage; only the female had reached third-rank peak.

“They’re here!”

Sensing the violent, bloodthirsty aura pouring off them, Fu Changsheng grew instantly wary, not daring to be careless.

According to the clan’s bestiary,

once a Bloodscale Crocodile broke through to third rank, it naturally awakened a Bloodline Demonic Technique—Blood-Shadow Escape.

It could be used not only to flee, but to bewilder foes in battle, leaving countless afterimages wherever the blood shadow passed so the enemy could not tell the true body. However, the Technique consumed a great deal of essence blood, so they usually used it only at death’s door.

“Roar!”

The ten crocodiles broke the surface and, seeing the culprit was a late-stage Purple Mansion two-legger,

let out furious roars.

They had ruled this abyss for centuries.

No one had ever been foolish enough to provoke them.

They opened their maws, spitting dense clots of dark-green liquid that burst in midair with a bang, expanding into a green mist that spread in all directions. Wherever it passed, grasses withered; the waterbirds that failed to escape screamed twice and were corroded into bloody rain with a sizzle.

Fu Changsheng remained unmoved.

A thought.

The Azure Flood Dragon, which had been concealing its aura, soared into view and opened its jaws. A terrifying suction erupted forth; the green miasma surged back like a hundred rivers returning to the sea and was swallowed clean.

“Roar!”

Seeing the Azure Flood Dragon reveal itself, all ten crocodiles shuddered.

A third-rank peak Azure Flood Dragon.

Sensing the situation turn grim, they wheeled and dove.

Too late!

“Little Bear, do it!”

At Fu Changsheng’s shout,

the Frost-Prison Ice Bear flashed into view.

Another third-rank peak spirit beast made the crocodiles’ souls flee. With panicked cries, they tried to launch Blood-Shadow Escape.

But

they simply weren’t as fast as the Frost-Prison Ice Bear.

Its massive paw slammed down—the pool froze at a speed visible to the naked eye.

“Roar!”

The guarded female, seeing no escape, went feral. With a sky-rending bellow, it drove three crocodile kings to smash through the ice.

They had just broken the surface

when Fu Changsheng struck a hand seal into the array.

A bolt of lightning fell in an instant.

Their scales charred black.

The three kings howled in agony.

Fu Changsheng’s gaze sharpened. He traced with his sword fingers and barked softly, “Xiao Qing, the Xun position!”

Xiao Qing’s draconic tail swept out, cutting off the crocodiles’ retreat.

The Profound Water Beast took the chance to transform—ten zhang of water tornado plummeted from the sky wrapped in thunder, sweeping the other seven into its vortex. Water-blades within were laced with the Sword Array’s killing aura; every turn sheared off swaths of scales, blood bursting everywhere. They thrashed in the maelstrom, but could not escape its fatal grip.

However,

throughout,

the nine males continued to shield the female at the center.

Fu Changsheng faintly sensed something amiss.

The next instant,

the female threw its head back and bellowed.

Then—

a towering tide of blood erupted from within it.

The blood tide carried corrosive force

that even gnawed at the array’s lightning net.

A few drops spattered onto the Profound Water Beast with soft ticks—flesh and blood there began to rot away.

Only because little had splashed on it

did it avoid being reduced to blood on the spot.

The female had clearly mutated.

“Roar.”

Just as the brood was about to flee to the heavens, rolling soundwaves swept down from above. In midair, Qiu Chan stood facing the wind, pushing the Extreme Cold Demon Chant to the limit. The crocodiles stiffened mid-escape.

Swish, swish, swish!

At that moment,

the joints of the Skull Demon Vine rang like clashing metal; its tendrils shot like vipers into the crocodiles’ eye sockets. The tips met blood and split into ten thousand threads—in less than three breaths, each crocodile’s brain was churned to paste.

Thud, thud, thud!

One after another, the Bloodscale Crocodiles crashed down dead as dead could be.

Fu Changsheng flicked his hand.

Ten Demon Cores wreathed in blood-murder aura fell into his Universe Pouch.

The whole thing was as swift as lightning. The crocodiles didn’t even manage a final wail before they met the Yellow Springs.

“Little Water, dive to the bottom.”

Fu Changsheng rattled off instructions.

The Profound Water Beast obediently plunged into the abyss.

According to the intelligence,

the Bloodscale Crocodiles had mated years ago and laid eggs. If he could bring them back for his fourth sister to hatch and raise, it would undoubtedly add a solid foundation to the clan.

Time was short.

He had no intention of processing the carcasses here.

A wave of his hand.

The corpses seemed to vanish into his storage pouch—but in truth, he tossed them into the Five Elements Space for Qiuniang to handle.

Before long,

with a splash and a spray of water, the Profound Water Beast burst from the pool.

Fu Changsheng squinted.

In its claws it cradled a nest woven of Qilin Grass vine; in the nest lay sixteen Bloodscale Crocodile eggs.

“Not bad at all!”

Sixteen was more than he’d expected.

At the same time,

the familiar mechanical chime rang in his head:

“Ding.”

“You hunted ten Bloodscale Crocodiles for the clan and seized a clutch of eggs. You gain 1,000 Family contribution points.”

Right after,

the number on his panel changed to 1,200.

Seeing his contribution points replenished, Fu Changsheng felt a bit of relief. He stowed the eggs and turned away from the abyss.

Not long after he left,

a nest of Biling Serpents slithered over, hissing. Discovering the crocodiles’ aura had vanished, they writhed with excitement and plopped into the abyss one after another like dumplings into boiling water. It had been their ancestral lair before the crocodiles drove them out. Now they finally reclaimed it.

…

After leaving the abyss, Fu Changsheng didn’t hesitate. He moved his mind.

“Redeem intelligence.”

Half a month later,

standing in a forest, Fu Changsheng tucked away the fifteenth third-rank Cloud-Mist Beast Demon Core he had collected. Aside from that first brood of Bloodscale Crocodiles, every third-rank beast the intelligence pointed him to afterward had been solitary—rarely in pairs—and their territories were far apart. After breaking into third rank, they were all cunning, with endless ways to flee rather than meekly waiting to be captured.

In addition,

he had recently communicated with Yao Yao and learned she had only secured three Demon Cores—and had been wounded for it.

He immediately told Yao Yao to withdraw from the mountain range.

As the contest neared its end,

the other clans would likely join forces to steal the fruits. In particular, the two False Core patriarchs of the Huang and Wu clans—Cao Xianger was one of his own, so she could be excluded.

He put the Demon Core away.

“I wonder how the other clans have done,” Fu Changsheng murmured.

Not much time remained.

If he hunted as before,

by the end he might barely reach twenty.

Right now,

he urgently needed to find another brood of group-dwelling third-rank beasts.

He looked at the system panel in his sea of consciousness.

A thought:

“Redeem intelligence.”

Buzz!

The panel trembled.

A flood of yellow light surged.

Then lines of text surfaced:

[1: Your son, Fu Yongshou, was jointly hunted by three Foundation Establishment cultivators of the Huang Clan. After falling off a cliff, he accidentally discovered an ancient tomb and obtained a corpse-refining inheritance. If the ancient Corpse King sealed within is uncoffined, all of Wu Province will run with blood.]

An ancient Corpse King?

Fu Changsheng’s pupils tightened.

Reading to the end, he saw that Yongshou had not acted rashly and had successfully found a way out of the tomb. Only then did he exhale in relief.

“So there’s even an ancient Corpse King in the Falling Phoenix Mountain Range?”

Could the rumors be true—that this was where an ancient Heavenly Phoenix fell?

[2: The Seventh Commandery Prince passed away yesterday.]

“What?!”

How—how was that possible?

The last time he met the Seventh Commandery Prince had been less than a month ago. Though the man was a burned-out lamp, he could have lasted another year or half easily. How could he suddenly die?

“If that’s true, doesn’t that mean Kang’er’s heir-apparent status just went up in smoke?”

By the Imperial Court’s rules of title succession,

the Seventh Commandery Prince’s manor would fall to Zhou Xuanming, Kang’er’s father.

That matched the intelligence’s earliest prediction exactly.

In a flash,

he worried more for Kang’er’s safety.

They had built momentum from the start for Kang’er to inherit. Now that the heir-apparent position had vanished, he feared Zhou Xuanming might bear a grudge over what had happened before. Kang’er’s future in the manor might be miserable!

The prince’s sudden death surely hid something fishy.

He guessed someone in the manor had used some means to veil the heavenly secrets—otherwise, if the system had refreshed such an item, it wouldn’t have had no prior hint.

“In any case, the commandery manor is no good place for Kang’er now.”

Whether Kang’er would be willing to leave was another matter.

[3: In the Cangling Realm, after entering the Blood Saber Sect, your father has, through over ten years of effort, risen from a menial to an inner disciple. To become an inner disciple of the Blood Saber Sect, one must take the Heart-Eater Pill; every five years one must take the sect’s exclusive antidote. Otherwise, when the poison flares, it is like ten thousand insects gnawing the heart—without the antidote, most cannot endure and will choose suicide.]

Father!

A pang stirred in Fu Changsheng.

In order to seek his whereabouts, Father had even been willing to take the Heart-Eater Pill—handing his life to the Blood Saber Sect.

Separated by two realms,

he still felt the weight of that paternal love.

But

if he wanted to enter the Cangling Realm again,

by Shadow Gate rules, he had to be promoted to Elder.

Right now he was only an outer disciple; there wasn’t even a whisper on how to advance inward.

“It seems I’ve spent too little time with the Shadow Gate. The upper echelons don’t intend to share this path with me.”

The high-ups would only cultivate those who devoted themselves wholly to the Gate. Since obtaining the mask, he had done only what was required, never delving too deep.

If he wanted to go to the Cangling Realm,

he would need to shift part of his focus to the Shadow Gate.

[4: The sect master of Xuanxiao Sect has received orders from their superior, the Joyous Sect, to launch a major offensive against your Fu fief in Huizhou Prefecture once the Kunlun Minor World opens.]

“The Joyous Sect again!”

Fu Changsheng’s eyes narrowed.

The opening of the Kunlun Minor World was the talk of the realm.

It wasn’t surprising the Joyous Sect knew.

“It seems that when the Kunlun Minor World opens, Yao Yao must remain in the Fu fief!”

Only Yao Yao could draw out the full power of the Mountain-Guarding Array.

With that grand array,

he wasn’t afraid of them coming to break the mountain—he was afraid they wouldn’t come.

[5: A hundred li west of you lies Bloodflame Gorge, the roost of the Bloodflame Falcons. The Bloodflame Falcon King will soon face a tribulation to break through to fourth rank. Unfortunately, the Falcon King will fail. Its three great lieutenants will slaughter each other to seize the king’s seat.]

“Oh?”

The Falcon King was about to face tribulation?

Fu Changsheng’s eyes lit.

The map did mark Bloodflame Gorge, but the Bloodflame Falcons were a group-dwelling species. When he’d sent Spirit-Devouring Insects to scout earlier, he learned there were dozens of third-rank falcons there and even a quasi-fourth-rank one—clearly the Falcon King.

He knew his own limits.

How would he dare storm such a dragon’s den and tiger’s lair?

But this was a perfect chance. Used well, it might just push him into the top three of the hunt.

“Stop redeeming!”

With a target in sight,

he halted the system.

After the pain of having no contribution points to spend, he’d been frugal with intelligence. He still had seven hundred Family contribution points left.

“Xiao Qing, head west.”

A hundred li

was less than a stick of incense for the Azure Flood Dragon.

From afar, Fu Changsheng saw a vast volcanic maw. Drawing close, he saw sky-piercing cliffs ringing the rim.

The entire Bloodflame Gorge was shrouded in a crimson haze, as if the firmament had been seared through by a branding iron, pouring down an endless rain of fire. Magma at the bottom coiled like a thousand warring dragons; dark-gold rivers of lava surged and wound, their surfaces dappled with ghost-blue phosphor flames. Each upheaval blasted out toxic sulfur smoke. The cliffs were burned a ghastly black, and blood-red “Corroding Fire Vines” crept through their seams, their honeycomb pores hissing acid fog that could eat through protective qi.

Fu Changsheng couldn’t help muttering,

“No wonder it’s one of the Five Perilous Lands of the Falling Phoenix Range.”

If he hadn’t known in advance the Falcon King would soon face tribulation, he never would have risked coming. Even with the Nine-Suns Red Lotus Flame guarding him as a protective light screen, the gorge’s heat crashed into him; the true essence in his body grew restless.

A sweep of spiritual sense.

Soon,

he found the falcon’s eyrie—

built right in the heart-vent of the volcano, woven from cultivators’ bones and shattered fire-attribute artifact scraps.

“Tsk, tsk.”

Fu Changsheng could only shake his head.

The Bloodflame Falcons lived far too extravagantly.

They moved in flocks. The bones in the eyrie were clearly from unlucky cultivators who ran into them on migration.

“Skree!”

With a piercing cry,

a third-rank peak Bloodflame Falcon burst from the lava.

Up close,

it was the color of poured molten iron, wings three zhang across with feather-edges limned in ghost-blue phosphor fire. A pair of curved bone horns jutted from its head, their tips wreathed in blood-red arcs; its eyes were twin spheres of churning magma.

“Frightening look, I’ll give you that.”

Fu Changsheng flicked his sleeve.

The bestiary unfurled. After he entered “Bloodflame Falcon,”

lines of text appeared.

The more he read, the deeper his frown.

According to Fu Changli’s revised bestiary, an adult third-rank Bloodflame Falcon could spit ten zhang of “Corroding-Heart Fire.” Its talons were like bent bars of black iron; when they clenched, sparks flew, easily rending third-rank protective spirit tools. Nine “Flame Plumes” grew from the tip of its tail; when lashed, they turned into a rain of fire that could boil seas and burn mountains.

“Good grief.”

“This Bloodflame Falcon even has three bloodline Techniques.”

Its “Corroding-Heart Eyes” shot ghost-blue beams that set the five viscera ablaze and slowed true essence by thirty percent; if it devoured corpse-qi, gray-white nether-fire would kindle on its wings and the feather-edges carried “Corrodebones Poison,” making wounds fester to the bone in three days; most crucial of all was its life-bound Technique—Blood-Fiend Heaven-Burning Flame.

Once used,

it could condense into nine fire pythons.

Where the pythons passed, lava surged; they could even burn the soul of a cultivator of the same realm.

Seeing this,

Fu Changsheng was glad he hadn’t charged in earlier.

At his side, Qiu Chan clearly disliked the blistering heat yet still read along. At last she said, thoughtful:

“Master,

the Bloodflame Falcons are strict in rank—even their feeding order is set by the number of tail plumes. They obey the king’s every command. The king favors ‘Earthheart Fire Essence.’ If we use ‘Fire Marrow Jade’ to mimic the Earthheart Fire’s pulse and lure it away, this slave can use an ‘Illusory Sound Gu’ to mimic the king’s cry, then lead the third-rank lieutenants, one by one, into arrays we set ahead of time and kill them separately.”

Fu Changsheng’s eyes brightened.

At the Heavenly Dragon Temple, aside from tending the Profound Yin Grass, Qiu Chan had taken a deep interest in the path of Gu. Seeing this, he had given her the clan’s Gu notes and brood larvae. She had researched it for decades.

This Illusory Sound Gu was her own specialty.

Under normal circumstances,

it was a splendid plan.

Fu Changsheng glanced at the sky and smiled.

“We don’t need to lift a finger. We’ll be fishermen waiting on the bank.”

Qiu Chan, puzzled,

also looked up.

At that moment,

above Bloodflame Gorge, red clouds heaved like a sea of blood. Dark-gold lightning rolled within them, as if a thousand magma dragons were tearing at one another in the firmament. It was the omen of a Four-Nines Heavenly Tribulation—the Heart-Scorching Thunder Tribulation, bane of fire-type great fiends.

Qiu Chan’s pupils shrank; her tongue curled.

“Master, th—the Falcon King is advancing to fourth rank?”

If the king succeeded,

their lure plan would be wrecked.

Just then—

Rumble!

Thunder gods roared along the horizon.

As a ghost cultivator, Qiu Chan was born to fear tribulation thunder. Even before it fell, her face went bloodless and her body trembled.

“Qiu Chan, return to the Heavenly Dragon Temple,” Fu Changsheng said.

He paused,

then added, “Get the Illusory Sound Gu ready.”

“Yes, Master.”

As if pardoned from death, Qiu Chan didn’t hesitate. With a thought from Fu Changsheng, she returned to the Heavenly Dragon Temple.

Meanwhile,

the magma in the gorge suddenly congealed like scabbed blood; roiling sulfur clouds twisted into vortices. A shriek like riven metal exploded from the vent, shaking thousands of tons of fire-rock from the cliffs.

Fu Changsheng sensed a fourth-rank aura spill from the gorge.

“So you finally show yourself?”

“Boom—!”

The lava river surged a hundred zhang high. A colossal crimson shadow tore into the sky. When the Bloodflame Falcon King spread its wings, the whole gorge seemed stuffed into a hellish furnace. The feather-edges flowed with the sheen of molten steel. Curved bone horns crowned its head, their tips wrapped in blood arcs; its magma-orb eyes exuded a soul-gripping glamor.

Rumble!

By now

the thunder had finished brewing.

Rumble!

The first bolt fell.

Fu Changsheng glanced up,

and his pupils shrank.

It wasn’t common violet lightning but a “Fire-Fiend Thunder Dragon” as crimson as magma. The dragon opened its jaws to spew ghost-blue phosphor; air warped where it passed, and even the lava of the earth-veins was dragged into the sky, turning into iron chains that howled toward the king.

“Skree—!”

The Falcon King screamed.

Beams of treasure-light shot up from the gorge—fire-attribute artifacts, which knit themselves in midair into the Nine Suns Burning-Heaven Array. The instant the formation set, it force-twisted the thunder dragon into a rain of fire.

“This—”

Fu Changsheng was dumbstruck.

He hadn’t expected the king to know formations.

“Could it be…this king is the offspring of a fallen Golden Core True Person who seized a falcon body?”

Rumble!

The second bolt followed on its heels. Red clouds boiled, condensing into a greater Fire-Fiend Thunder Dragon. It was far more violent, wreathed in ghost-blue phosphor; when it raked its claws, the air tore into hairline seams as if even space would be shredded.

The Nine Suns Burning-Heaven Array barely held.

But a Four-Nines Tribulation had nine bolts, each more lethal than the last.

At the fifth,

the array collapsed with a crash.

At the sixth,

the Falcon King snapped its wings—its scarlet feathers blazed into a wall of fire. At the same time, blood-red arcs blasted from its horns; fire and lightning crossed, weaving an indomitable shield.

“Boom!”

When thunder dragon struck fire wall, a deafening detonation rolled across heaven and earth. Searing flame and savage lightning tangled into a storm of annihilation that swept the gorge. Rock shattered off the cliffs in sheets; the lava river heaved a thousand-zhang tide. The entire mountain seemed to tremble.

Watching from afar, Fu Changsheng marveled inwardly: “The Falcon King truly is extraordinary—to withstand six bolts!”

But the bolts to come

were fiercer still.

According to the system’s intelligence,

the king would fail—but at which bolt?

Around them,

the other Bloodflame Falcons cringed before the terror of tribulation thunder, retreating deep into their eyries and not daring to show themselves.

The seventh bolt descended—red clouds suddenly contracted, condensing into a two-tone Fire-Fiend Thunder Dragon. Its whole body was wreathed in purple-black phosphor. At its appearance, heaven and earth lost their color. With the aura of destruction, it dove for the king.

By now the king was a spent arrow. The flames on its feathers had dulled; its aura was in shambles. It opened its beak and spewed a flood of molten red fire, trying to meet the blow. But that fire was a candle before a gale. It vanished in a blink.

“Boom—!”

The thunder dragon smashed into the Falcon King. Flame and lightning fused into a storm of ruin. With a hideous shriek, the king was flung away, crashing deep into the lava river.

Watching from afar, Fu Changsheng thought,

“Looks like it won’t make it past the seventh bolt.”

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